24th Apr Per 3 XI Catechism

Good Morning ! and Welcome to the class today!😊

I often ask you how you are - it's not just something pleasant to say - when someone asks me that question - it's an invitation for me to self-check! How am I today? How are you today? - we have begun learning how to listen to ourselves - our feelings, our body sensations and being more aware of others - when I check up on myself - I'm giving myself time - I'm being kind to myself  - when I'm checking up on you - I'm giving you time - I'm telling you that you matter to me! So ! How are you?

Reminder - if you haven't done so already - please enter your name in the "Comment" space - kindly do this each time you log into the blog post for the class - Thank you 🙏.
Once again, a reminder that when you are on social media (and this interaction is the use of social media for education), we are reminded that this is a public space and that we are called on to be our best selves - so kindly communicate appropriately at all times - in doing so you are respecting yourself and all of us. Thank you!

PART A
In this first part of the class, we're going to watch a dramatization of a Resurrection scene from the Gospels Jn 20 : 19-31 - please read it using your home Bible or google the reading on the device you're using for the lesson. Then, click on the link below :

•  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPBTIRkf1cY&t=87s
• What do we read/hear/see - what do we learn about the Resurrection?
• Jesus appears - not as a ghost but as a real person - but he suddenly appears - but he could be touched and he is the same Jesus who was crucified 
• and this is the importance of the doubt Thomas raises - we are asked to believe in the resurrection of experience of Jesus and for ourselves - even though, unlike Thomas we have not seen and felt the risen Jesus.
• The risen Jesus keeps telling us "Do not be afraid" and he blesses us with his "Peace" - he reassures us in all the ups and downs on our lives - because He is risen - He is with us - that is the meaning of his name "Emmanuel - God with us" Jesus, risen is proof to all living beings that God is with us - not a distant God! Am I willing to believe and the proof that I believe is - am I willing to let God be with me - will I let God walk with me in my life ? will I lean on him? 
• Jesus gives us His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is more than God with us. God is with us - this is a reality that Jesus helped us realise - this was the purpose of Jesus being born a human like us. The Holy Spirit blesses us and enables us to grow to be like Jesus was when he was on earth - that is why Jesus breaths the Holy Spirit onto the apostles. We pray that we will always be open to the continuous pouring of the Holy Spirit into our lives - The Holy Spirit wants to come to us - we need to give the Holy Spirit the "okay" to do so - we pray that we be continually one to the Holy Spirit - more on the Holy Spirit in the next few weeks!

The stories of the Resurrection are few but they are important.

• How many stories of the resurrection can you remember? 
• How many stories of the resurrection can you tell
• look at your bible and find them and list them! 
• We'll list them in the next class !

PART B
Over the last few classes, we have spent some time

• listening to ourselves, 
• attempting to name our feelings
• listening to our feelings as felt in our bodies

These are necessary and very helpful abilities - do practice them.

Today, we want to listen to ourselves in another way

Please follow the next few steps :

1. take an A4 sheet - a sheet of the size of a long notebook
2. hold the sheet in the horizontal (landscape) position
3. turn the right side of the sheet over to the left and fold it in half 
4. repeat the action
5. open the sheet - you have the sheet with three vertical lines.
6. at the top right-hand corner put down your present age - most of you should be 16 years
7. at the top of the left-hand corner put 0 - and your date of birth !
8. to the top of the first fold - write the number 4 - when you were 4 years old
9. at the top of the second fold - write the number 8 - when you were 8 years old
10. at the top of the third fold -write the number 12 - when you were 12 years old

So, now you have a sheet which divides your life, thus far into 4 sections!

The invitation is for you to look back on the last 16 or so years of your life.

I'm requesting you to draw - don't start as yet - listen to the directions :

• you will be drawing a stream more or less from the top left-hand corner of the page to bottom right corner
• this stream is a visual description of your life
• think through each 4 years of your life and draw what you might see as part of a river or stream.
• remember in a stream - there may be various things besides the stream (which are those events which you remember of your life's experience which were important but which were not part of your life
• closer to the bank of the stream the water of the stream add nourishment - so what or who benefited from meeting you? If the event or the person became a part of your life e.g. a sibling (brother or sister) born - would be such. If someone left your family and went to stay in a different city - that could be a distributary.

Until the next class - let this assignment be in your mind - as you talk with members of the family - find about more about your early life - find out more about their lives - about your parents and their families! As you learn about yourself and your roots - be aware of yourself!

That's all for today - take care 🙏